James & Yvonne Brown
James Brown still owns the home on North Osprey Avenue that was built in 1928 by his father.
The lot was purchased in 1926 for $450. Brown and his wife Yvonne describe idyllic lives growing up in the African American community. Yvonne Brown’s grandparents moved to Overtown in 1925 from Quitman, Georgia. She recalls hearing stories about the family starting out in makeshift housing that resembled a tent, then transitioning into a two-story building on 14th Street, later renamed 8th Street.
“We were happy and always had everything we needed. My friends and I enjoyed going to church, school, the movies and there was entertainment that came once a year. It was called ‘Silas Green’ from New Orleans. It was like a play, similar to Tyler Perry’s. They crafted a big tent in a community. That was a lot of fun,” she said. James Brown grew up in Newtown where the police substation sits on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Way. Children played under the shade of two banyan trees. “We were a happy generation. The beauty of it was that adults let us be children. As I grew older, I realized all they must have been going through,” he said.
Teachers were motivators and had great expectations for Yvonne, James and their classmates. “Boy, you are going to college. I don’t want to hear it. You are going to college,” educator Esther Reed Dailey told him. Brown graduated with honors in the top ten percent of his Florida A&M University class and retired as associate dean of educational services at State College of Florida. His wife retired as pre-school coordinator for Sarasota County Schools.
Oral Interview: James & Yvonne Brown
